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USS Alert (1861)
Encyclopedia
USS Alert (1861) was a 90 LT (91.4 t) steamship named A. C. Powell purchased by the Union Navy
during the first year of the American Civil War
.
A. C. Powell — later renamed Alert, and still later renamed Watch — served primarily as a tugboat
, but at times she performed duty as a dispatch boat
, ship’s tender, and even as a gunboat
despite the fact that she had on board only a howitzer
instead of a cannon or rifle.
built in 1861 at Syracuse, New York
., under the name A. C. Powell — was purchased at New York City
by the Navy on 3 October 1861.
of North Carolina
on 13 March 1862. We next hear of her on 30 June, when she was detached from the Potomac River
Flotilla for duty in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
The reassignment was prompted by Confederate
General Robert E. Lee
's success in the Seven Days Campaign which turned back General
George McClellan
's Union Army
before Richmond, Virginia
, and forced it to seek safety on the banks of the James River
under the protection of Federal gunboats. A. C. Powell — then under the command of Acting
Master
Henry H. Foster — was one of several ships of the Union Navy sent to the James to assure Union control of that indispensable waterway.
Abraham Lincoln
decided to withdraw the Army of the Potomac
from the peninsula
formed by the James and York River
s and return it to the vicinity of Washington, D.C.
to protect the Union capital which was threatened by Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
.
U.S. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles
called Alert back to the Potomac River
to strengthen the forces which were to meet Lee, but the steamer was undergoing repairs at Newport News, Virginia
, and was unable to get underway until after Union soldiers had stopped Lee at Antietam Creek
. With Lee's decision to retire into Virginia
, the need for Alert in the Potomac disappeared, and she remained in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
Thomas Turner, the senior Union naval officer in the Hampton Roads-Norfolk
area, warned Alert that
The admonition for ". . . the officers and men to be constantly on the watch ..." was especially important since Alert often served as tender to , the flag steamer of Acting Rear Admiral
Samuel Phillips Lee
who commanded the Union squadron.
Union warships on the James also cooperated with Army forces. In mid January 1863, Major General
John Adams Dix
notified Admiral Lee that there were "... indications of activity on the part of the enemy . . ." in the Dismal Swamp
-Suffolk
area. Since a major Confederate movement in that vicinity could jeopardize the entire Union hold on the south bank of the James, Admiral Lee ordered Alert and her sister warship
s to ready themselves to help turn back the Southern thrust should it come.
's corps from the Army of Northern Virginia to forage for supplies. Longstreet, apparently hoping to improve the South's strategic position while finding food for General Lee's soldiers, headed for Suffolk. When the Union Army called on the Navy for help, Admiral Lee ordered Lieutenant
William B. Gushing to lead a group of gunboats up the Nansemond River
— a tributary of the James — to assist Major General John J. Peck
's troops as they tried to stop Longstreet's advance.
Alert ascended the Nansemond with Gushing on 12 April, and for the next three weeks participated in almost daily duels with Confederate shore batteries. Because of her light draft, she moved above the bar of the river into the narrower, shallower, and more dangerous part of the stream near Suffolk where the fighting was fiercest. The afternoon of the next day, her rudder was severely damaged, requiring her to return briefly to Norfolk to have it replaced. The repair work was completed on the afternoon of the 16th, and the tug returned to the Nansemond and fought there through the end of the month.
Her vigorous fight and that of her sister ships prevented the Southern forces from dislodging Major General Peck's troops from their defensive works and finally prompted Longstreet to withdraw — a movement hastened by a message from General Lee, who was about to engage the Union Army at Chancellorsville
.
, who had shot the President.
on 26 May. She was sold at auction there to Robert Lear on 5 July. Redocumented as Watch on 2 August, she served as a merchant tug until abandoned in 1886.
Union Navy
The Union Navy is the label applied to the United States Navy during the American Civil War, to contrast it from its direct opponent, the Confederate States Navy...
during the first year of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
A. C. Powell — later renamed Alert, and still later renamed Watch — served primarily as a tugboat
Tugboat
A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...
, but at times she performed duty as a dispatch boat
Dispatch boat
Dispatch boats were small boats, and sometimes large ships, tasked to carry military dispatches from ship to ship or from ship to shore or, in some cases from shore to shore...
, ship’s tender, and even as a gunboat
Gunboat
A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...
despite the fact that she had on board only a howitzer
Howitzer
A howitzer is a type of artillery piece characterized by a relatively short barrel and the use of comparatively small propellant charges to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories, with a steep angle of descent...
instead of a cannon or rifle.
Built in New York in 1861
Alert — a screw tugboatTugboat
A tugboat is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal,or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for...
built in 1861 at Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
., under the name A. C. Powell — was purchased at New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
by the Navy on 3 October 1861.
A. C. Powell early blockade support
Since this small tug's logs prior to 27 January 1865 have been lost, there are several significant gaps in our knowledge of her career. All we know of A. C. Powells service until early in the summer of 1862 is that she was operating in the soundsSound (geography)
In geography a sound or seaway is a large sea or ocean inlet larger than a bay, deeper than a bight and wider than a fjord; or it may be defined as a narrow sea or ocean channel between two bodies of land ....
of North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
on 13 March 1862. We next hear of her on 30 June, when she was detached from the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
Flotilla for duty in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
The reassignment was prompted by Confederate
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
General Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
's success in the Seven Days Campaign which turned back General
General (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Air Force, and United States Marine Corps, general is a four-star general officer rank, with the pay grade of O-10. General ranks above lieutenant general and below General of the Army or General of the Air Force; the Marine Corps does not have an...
George McClellan
George McClellan
George B. McClellan was an American Civil War military leader, Presidential candidate and Governor of New Jersey.George McClellan may also refer to:*George McClellan , American physician who founded medical schools...
's Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
before Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, and forced it to seek safety on the banks of the James River
James River (Virginia)
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is long, extending to if one includes the Jackson River, the longer of its two source tributaries. The James River drains a catchment comprising . The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million...
under the protection of Federal gunboats. A. C. Powell — then under the command of Acting
Brevet (military)
In many of the world's military establishments, brevet referred to a warrant authorizing a commissioned officer to hold a higher rank temporarily, but usually without receiving the pay of that higher rank except when actually serving in that role. An officer so promoted may be referred to as being...
Master
Master (naval)
The master, or sailing master, was a historic term for a naval officer trained in and responsible for the navigation of a sailing vessel...
Henry H. Foster — was one of several ships of the Union Navy sent to the James to assure Union control of that indispensable waterway.
A. C. Powell renamed USS Alert
While the tug was operating on that river, she was renamed Alert. Late in 1861, PresidentPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
decided to withdraw the Army of the Potomac
Army of the Potomac
The Army of the Potomac was the major Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War.-History:The Army of the Potomac was created in 1861, but was then only the size of a corps . Its nucleus was called the Army of Northeastern Virginia, under Brig. Gen...
from the peninsula
Peninsula
A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....
formed by the James and York River
York River (Virginia)
The York River is a navigable estuary, approximately long, in eastern Virginia in the United States. It ranges in width from at its head to near its mouth on the west side of Chesapeake Bay. Its watershed drains an area including portions of 17 counties of the coastal plain of Virginia north...
s and return it to the vicinity of Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
to protect the Union capital which was threatened by Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
Army of Northern Virginia
The Army of Northern Virginia was the primary military force of the Confederate States of America in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War, as well as the primary command structure of the Department of Northern Virginia. It was most often arrayed against the Union Army of the Potomac...
.
U.S. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles
Gideon Welles
Gideon Welles was the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869. His buildup of the Navy to successfully execute blockades of Southern ports was a key component of Northern victory of the Civil War...
called Alert back to the Potomac River
Potomac River
The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. The river is approximately long, with a drainage area of about 14,700 square miles...
to strengthen the forces which were to meet Lee, but the steamer was undergoing repairs at Newport News, Virginia
Newport News, Virginia
Newport News is an independent city located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia. It is at the southeastern end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending southeast from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News...
, and was unable to get underway until after Union soldiers had stopped Lee at Antietam Creek
Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam , fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000...
. With Lee's decision to retire into Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, the need for Alert in the Potomac disappeared, and she remained in the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron.
Service on the James River
During most of the remainder of her service, the tug acted as a dispatch and picket boat on the James River. She also made occasional runs to the sounds of North Carolina with messages. During these operations, Confederate forces in the waters she frequented were constantly endeavoring to seize Union warships or to destroy them by guile. For instance, on 12 November 1862, CaptainCaptain (naval)
Captain is the name most often given in English-speaking navies to the rank corresponding to command of the largest ships. The NATO rank code is OF-5, equivalent to an army full colonel....
Thomas Turner, the senior Union naval officer in the Hampton Roads-Norfolk
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
area, warned Alert that
- ". . . the enemy is preparing ... an expedition of armed launches [to be] sent down close inshore in the darkness of the night until they get abreast of you."
The admonition for ". . . the officers and men to be constantly on the watch ..." was especially important since Alert often served as tender to , the flag steamer of Acting Rear Admiral
Rear admiral (United States)
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. The uniformed services of the United States are unique in having two grades of rear admirals.- Rear admiral :...
Samuel Phillips Lee
Samuel Phillips Lee
Samuel Phillips Lee was a Rear Admiral of the United States Navy. He commanded the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron from 4 September 1862 to 12 October 1864. His flagship was Philadelphia.-Life and career:...
who commanded the Union squadron.
Union warships on the James also cooperated with Army forces. In mid January 1863, Major General
Major general (United States)
In the United States Army, United States Marine Corps, and United States Air Force, major general is a two-star general-officer rank, with the pay grade of O-8. Major general ranks above brigadier general and below lieutenant general...
John Adams Dix
John Adams Dix
John Adams Dix was an American politician from New York. He served as Secretary of the Treasury, U.S. Senator, and the 24th Governor of New York. He was also a Union major general during the Civil War.-Early life and career:...
notified Admiral Lee that there were "... indications of activity on the part of the enemy . . ." in the Dismal Swamp
Dismal Swamp
* The Great Dismal Swamp located near Virginia and North Carolina* The Dismal Swamp located in Middlesex County New Jersey* The Dismal Swamp in Tasmania...
-Suffolk
Suffolk, Virginia
Suffolk is the largest city by area in Virginia, United States, and is located in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 84,585. Its median household income was $57,546.-History:...
area. Since a major Confederate movement in that vicinity could jeopardize the entire Union hold on the south bank of the James, Admiral Lee ordered Alert and her sister warship
Warship
A warship is a ship that is built and primarily intended for combat. Warships are usually built in a completely different way from merchant ships. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster and more maneuvrable than merchant ships...
s to ready themselves to help turn back the Southern thrust should it come.
Nansemond River expedition
Almost three months passed before that particular threat materialized. Early in April, General Lee detached Lieutenant General James LongstreetJames Longstreet
James Longstreet was one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War and the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse." He served under Lee as a corps commander for many of the famous battles fought by the Army of Northern Virginia in the...
's corps from the Army of Northern Virginia to forage for supplies. Longstreet, apparently hoping to improve the South's strategic position while finding food for General Lee's soldiers, headed for Suffolk. When the Union Army called on the Navy for help, Admiral Lee ordered Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
William B. Gushing to lead a group of gunboats up the Nansemond River
Nansemond River
The Nansemond River is a tributary of the James River in the U.S. state of Virginia. The Nansemond River Bridge crosses the river near its mouth. Both it and the former State Route 125 bridge, demolished in 2008, were once toll bridges. The river begins at the outlet of Lake Meade north of...
— a tributary of the James — to assist Major General John J. Peck
John J. Peck
John James Peck was a United States soldier who fought in the Mexican-American War and American Civil War.-Early life:...
's troops as they tried to stop Longstreet's advance.
Alert ascended the Nansemond with Gushing on 12 April, and for the next three weeks participated in almost daily duels with Confederate shore batteries. Because of her light draft, she moved above the bar of the river into the narrower, shallower, and more dangerous part of the stream near Suffolk where the fighting was fiercest. The afternoon of the next day, her rudder was severely damaged, requiring her to return briefly to Norfolk to have it replaced. The repair work was completed on the afternoon of the 16th, and the tug returned to the Nansemond and fought there through the end of the month.
Her vigorous fight and that of her sister ships prevented the Southern forces from dislodging Major General Peck's troops from their defensive works and finally prompted Longstreet to withdraw — a movement hastened by a message from General Lee, who was about to engage the Union Army at Chancellorsville
Battle of Chancellorsville
The Battle of Chancellorsville was a major battle of the American Civil War, and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville Campaign. It was fought from April 30 to May 6, 1863, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near the village of Chancellorsville. Two related battles were fought nearby on...
.
Attempt at conversion to torpedo boat
On 31 August 1863, the tug caught fire while moored in the Norfolk Navy Yard and sank. She was soon raised, and by October had returned to duty. In January 1864, work to fit her with a torpedo apparatus began, but the experiment proved to be unsuccessful. As a result, the tug returned to duty in the James in May.Renamed USS Watch
On 2 February 1865, Alert was renamed Watch. Her work on the James reached its climax early in April when she participated in the naval expedition to Richmond, which took President Lincoln to the former Confederate capital. Soon thereafter, she left that river and raced to the Potomac River, presumably to try to cut off the escape of the assassin, John Wilkes BoothJohn Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
, who had shot the President.
Post-war decommissioning and subsequent career
Following the collapse of the Confederacy, Watch was decommissioned at the Washington Navy YardWashington Navy Yard
The Washington Navy Yard is the former shipyard and ordnance plant of the United States Navy in Southeast Washington, D.C. It is the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy...
on 26 May. She was sold at auction there to Robert Lear on 5 July. Redocumented as Watch on 2 August, she served as a merchant tug until abandoned in 1886.